System and method for deploying application components on distributed IT resources

Abstract

A method for deploying application components to Information Technology (IT) resources using an application platform controller includes requesting a network slice for the application components from a network controller. Priority values are assigned to the application components defining an order in which the application components are planned to be deployed. The application components are deployed sequentially, using the priority values, to host sites of the IT resources using information from the network controller including existing registrations of users of the application to an access network of the host sites such that replicas of the application components are provided at the host sites which provide a minimum latency with respect to a location of the users.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A method for deploying application components to Information Technology (IT) resources using an application platform controller, the method comprising:
 receiving the application components and a Service Level Agreement (SLA) including requirements of each of the application components for an application to be deployed; 
 requesting a network slice for the application components from a network controller; 
 assigning priority values to the application components defining an order in which the application components are planned to be deployed; 
 and 
 deploying the application components sequentially, using the priority values, to host sites of the IT resources using information from the network controller including existing registrations of users of the application to an access network of the host sites such that replicas of each respective one of the application components are provided at the host sites which provide a minimum latency with respect to a location of the users. 
 
     
     
       2. The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the priority values are calculated based on the SLA by:
 creating a graph having the application components as vertices and quantitative bandwidth requirements as weighted edges; and 
 assigning the priority values to the application components based on shortest paths according to respective values of the bandwidth requirements such that the application components having a higher bandwidth requirement toward a user equipment of the user are given higher priority. 
 
     
     
       3. The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the network slice is represented as a graph including the host sites as vertices, and wherein a shortest path algorithm is applied to the graph so as to locate one or more of the host sites which provides the minimum latency. 
     
     
       4. The method according to  claim 1 , further comprising:
 determining a maximum latency among latencies for all of the host sites for an application component that cannot be replicated; and 
 choosing one of the host sites for deployment of the application component that cannot be replicated for which a minimum value of the maximum latency occurs. 
 
     
     
       5. The method according to  claim 1 , further comprising deploying at least one of the application components that has a requirement toward a network function. 
     
     
       6. The method according to  claim 5 , further comprising deploying at least one of the application component that has a requirement toward the at least one of the application components that has the requirement toward the network function. 
     
     
       7. The method according to  claim 6 , further comprising:
 deploying at least one further one of the application components that has the requirement toward the at least one of the application components that has the requirement toward the network function and a requirement toward another one of the application components; and 
 requesting more of the IT resources to deploy the at least one further one of the application components. 
 
     
     
       8. The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the host sites include cloud sites, edge sites or both. 
     
     
       9. An application platform controller, comprising one or more processors which, alone or in combination, are configured to provide for execution of the following steps:
 receiving the application components and a Service Level Agreement (SLA) including requirements of each of the application components for an application to be deployed; 
 requesting a network slice for the application components from a network controller; 
 assigning priority values to the application components defining an order in which the application components are planned to be deployed; 
 and 
 deploying the application components sequentially, using the priority values, to host sites of the IT resources using information from the network controller including existing registrations of users of the application to an access network of the host sites such that replicas of each respective one of the application components are provided at the host sites which provide a minimum latency with respect to a location of the users. 
 
     
     
       10. The application platform controller according to  claim 9 , wherein the priority values are calculated based on the SLA in the application platform controller by:
 creating a graph having the application components as vertices and quantitative bandwidth requirements as weighted edges; and 
 assigning the priority values to the application components based on shortest paths according to respective values of the bandwidth requirements such that the application components having a higher bandwidth requirement toward a user equipment of the user are given higher priority. 
 
     
     
       11. The application platform controller according to  claim 9 , wherein the network slice is represented as a graph including the host sites as vertices, and wherein a shortest path algorithm is applied to the graph so as to locate one or more of the host sites which provides the minimum latency. 
     
     
       12. The application platform controller according to  claim 9 , wherein the one or more processors, alone or in combination, are further configured to perform the following steps:
 determining a maximum latency among latencies for all of the host sites for an application component that cannot be replicated; and 
 choosing one of the host sites for deployment of the application component that cannot be replicated for which a minimum value of the maximum latency occurs. 
 
     
     
       13. The application platform controller according to  claim 9 , wherein the one or more processors, alone or in combination, are further configured to perform the following steps:
 deploying at least one of the application components that has a requirement toward a network function; and 
 deploying at least one of the application component that has a requirement toward the at least one of the application components that has the requirement toward the network function. 
 
     
     
       14. The application platform controller according to  claim 9 , wherein the one or more processors, alone or in combination, are further configured to perform the following steps:
 deploying at least one further one of the application components that has the requirement toward the at least one of the application components that has the requirement toward the network function and a requirement toward another one of the application components; and 
 requesting more of the IT resources to deploy the at least one further one of the application components. 
 
     
     
       15. The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the application platform controller is a controller of an Internet of Things (IoT) platform, and wherein the host sites include cloud sites, edge sites or both. 
     
     
       16. The method according to  claim 1 , further comprising, prior to deploying the application components sequentially, determining that no deployment plan that meets the requirements of each of the application components is possible using the requested network slice. 
     
     
       17. The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the deploying the application components sequentially is performed according to a deployment heuristic algorithm. 
     
     
       18. The method according to  claim 17 , wherein the deployment heuristic algorithm includes sorting the application components in ascending order of their priority value. 
     
     
       19. The method according to  claim 17 , wherein the deployment heuristic algorithm includes separately processing each requirement of each of the application components. 
     
     
       20. The method according to  claim 4 , wherein in the case of executables that cannot be replicated, the maximum latency among all the latencies of the requirements is found as if the executable was deployed on every data center.